The G.I.M.P (Or -- Affectionately -- GIMP)

I'm thankful to write that quite a few people have read my posts; many of them have assumed that the graphics I often include have been manipulated using a popular commercial application. To assure those who've asked, this is not the case.

I decided, therefore, to write a very brief 'how-to' featuring the open source (free) software I have been using since version 1 on Windows all those years ago. The latest version I have is 2.8.14. Yes, as I have written many times before, I'm a great believer in open source software -- especially when, in my opinion, it is almost as good as its way pricier commercial equivalents.

I'm talking, as you would have guessed, about GIMP, an acronym for "GNU Image Manipulation Program." GIMP is extremely useful for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, including my MBP and Ubuntu.

The most recent query I've received is about the 'page-curl' effect I've used with many of my graphics and so this 'how-to' is going to be about this plus the additional effect of layer-masking to achieve a transparency effect in other areas of the image, if you so desire it.

GIMP makes this really simple, with a tool named Pagecurl Effect. Just choose it, set the parameters according to your liking and -- presto! -- you have a curling page effect on whichever corner you like! You can also choose the extent of transparency you'd like to have under the curling page corner; or leave it completely opaque, if that's ok with you.

As you can see here, I've curled all four corners, just because -- well -- I can!

You can also make other areas of your image appear to fade from opaque to transparent with a little more creative effort and a couple more steps. First you need to add a Layer Mask to your image. (Naturally, you would need to first of all understand how layers work. And if you've been using commercial versions of image-manipulation software, this will be extremely easy for you.) Make sure your Layer Mask is white. Then choose the Blend Tool, ensuring that the parameter below is changed to "Foreground to Transparent." (You could play around, first, with choosing different colors for your foreground, just to see how they look. I've stuck with the olive green from my image.)

That's really all there is. Click and drag your mouse-pointer over whichever area of the image you want to appear to fade into transparency and GIMP will do the rest. You could play around with this effect by making two or three different images 'blend' into one, using the end of transparency on one and the beginning of transparency on the other. Once you've finished manipulating your image to your liking, don't forget to "Apply Layer Mask" in order to make your edits permanent.

This is my final image after all edits.

If you wish you can always go back and 'undo' anything you're not happy about, before you save your image, as there is a history of changes available in the 'Edit' menu.

Once you're done, export your image to wherever you like and you have a great "GIMPED" image!